| INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES | |||||
International conferences focus on the research themes that form CRIMT's scientific program. Interdisciplinary, and following an open architecture, these major meetings (now annual) bring together hundreds of participants from all four corners of the world (the June 2010 conference had over 400 delegates from more than 20 countries). Whilst the primary goal of these conference meetings is scientific, and their aim, to bring together a large number of researchers and graduate students, these meetings also seek to forster some form of dialogue between academics and labour market partners. The latter typically represent 30% of participants, many of them being invited to share their experiences in workshops and round-table discussion. The media library features the full audio-video recordings of three of the last four CRIMT international conferences (What Public Policies for Work in a Global Era? (2007), Union Action without Borders (2010, under the Outreach Activities heading) and Employee Representation in the New World of Work: The Dynamics of Rights, Voice, Performance and Power (2010). Note that CRIMT's next international conference (2013) will focus on the New Frontiers for Citizenship at Work. |
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| 2012 | |||||
| 25-27 October 2012 • International Conference Union Futures: Innovations, Transformations, Strategies The Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT) held an international conference on union futures, focusing on the innovations, strategies and changes implemented by local, national and transnational unions. The conference was organized around two activities: 1) the Forum on Union Innovation, which took place on Friday the 26th of October and brought together trade unionists and university researchers; 2) two days, the 25th and 27th of October, during which more than one hundred leading international researchers prsented the results of their latest research on union strategies and innovations. The two activities gave rise to a conference spanning three full days, from Thursday the 25th to Saturday the 27th of October 2012. This activity relied on the financial support of major partners: the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN), the Centrale des syndicats du Québec (CSQ), the Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec (FTQ), the Fonds de solidarité FTQ, the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) and the Syndicat des Métallos – District 5. It also received support from the National Union of Public and General Employee (NUPGE), the Conseil Provincial des Travailleurs et travailleuses unis de l’alimentation et du commerce (TUAC Québec), the Fédération de l’industrie manufacturière (FIM-CSN), the Fédération de la santé et des services sociaux (FSSS-CSN), the United Steelworkers - Canadian National Office (USW), Bâtirente, the Alliance du personnel professionnel et technique de la santé et des services sociaux (APTS), the Centrale des syndicats démocratiques (CSD), the Institut de recherches économiques et sociales (IRES) in France, the European Trade Union Institute in Brussels, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council in Canada, as part of its Major Collaborative Research Initiatives program, and the Fonds de recherche du Québec - Sociétés et culture, though its Regroupements stratégiques program. Promotional Material Conference Website Poster |
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| 2011 |
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| 6-8 June 2011 • International Conference Multinational Companies, Global Value Chains and Social Regulation HEC Montréal Montreal, Canada As part of its Major Collaborative Research Initiatives project (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada), the Interuniversity research centre on globalization and work (CRIMT) held an international conference on multinational companies, global value chains and emerging forms of social regulation. This conference took take place at HEC Montreal (Canada), from June 6th to 8th 2011. Context The spread of multinational companies (MNCs) through their global value chains is at the forefront of the current phase of globalization. The analysis of their development is critical for an understanding of the dynamics of labour and employment regulation. Far from evolving outside society, MNCs structure national business systems and influence public policy. Research points to how these firms control their subsidiaries and manage employment, how and why they adjust in varied ways to different societal environments, and the importance of institutional and other variations between home and host countries. The analysis of global value chains (or global production networks) shifts the focus to the reconfiguration of the sequence of activities within and across national boundaries and across networks. The increased possibilities for firms to delocalize or relocate production activities across countries and regions in search of the optimal location often clashes with the logic and dynamics of labour relations and public policy orientations, challenging national capacities to regulate work and employment relations in MNCs. This raises questions about the motives behind the restructuring of corporate activities and functions and the impact on working conditions in different locations along the value chain. The ways in which MNCs and their value chains cut across national and international employment regimes highlight the basic problem of institutional territoriality. In response, there is a process of institutional restructuring and hybridization where old and new collective actors and other stakeholders seek to regulate firms both within and beyond national borders. In these contested processes, actors attempt to mobilize both national and extra territorial sources of labour regulation through a variety of mechanisms of social regulation. These are only some of the questions the 230 conference participants explored on June 6th, 7th and 8th 2011. SSHRC-MCRI Theme(s): 1 & 5 Promotional Material Call for papers (closed) Program Poster Conference Website Deliverables Post-conference Website (forthcoming) Media Library (forthcoming) |
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| 2010 | |||||
| 16-18 June 2010 • International Conference Employee Representation in the New World of Work. The Dynamics of Rights, Voice, Performance and Power Université Laval Quebec, Canada The era of globalization and new information technologies has brought about significant changes in workplace configuration, workforce composition and expectations, and in the management of human resources as firms seek competitive advantage in an increasingly competitive environment. These changes pose considerable challenges to the traditional notions of employee representation, the core tenets of which were inspired in Canada under the Wagner Act exactly 75 years ago. The nature of these challengeswere fully explored and debated at an international conference that was held at the Université Laval (Quebec, Canada),on June 16th, 17th and 18th 2010. This conference was the result of a special collaboration between the Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT) and the Canadian Industrial Relations Association (CIRA). Part of CRIMT's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada's (SSHRC) Major Collaborative Research Initiatives (MCRI) project Building Institutions and Capabilities for Work and Employment in a Global Era: The Social Dynamics of Labour Regulation, it focused on a number of key issues relating to employee representation in the new world of work, including: the relevance in today's workplace of the founding principles of different representative systems; how different types of employee representation regimes deal with issues facing the contemporary worker; the emerging models and actors for employee rights and representation; the kinds of public policy, actors, strategies, capabilities and research that are necessary to rethink employee representation in the contemporary workplace. SSHRC-MCRI Theme(s): Themes 2, 3 et 4 Promotional Material Conference Website Poster Deliverables Publication(s) : Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations (forthcoming)  (2011) C. Brunelle, A. Hayden, G. Murray (Eds.)Revue de l'IRES (forthcoming) E-ProceedingsPost-Conference Website Media Library |
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| 2007 | |||||
| 24-26 May 2007 • International Conference What Public Policies for Work in a Global Era? HEC Montréal Montreal, Canada On May 24th to 26th 2007, the Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT) and its Rethinking Institutions for Work and Employment in the Global Era project (2003-2007 grant of the SSHRC's Major Collaborative Research Initiatives program) held a major international conference on public policies for work in a global era. Some of the questions explored at the conference included: How should public policies for work and employment be renewed to ensure effective social protection in a global economy? What should be the social and economic goals of these policies? What are the institutions most able to develop and implement these policies? Should these policies still be developed within a national space or instead in a broader space, more in keeping with global production chains set up by transnational firms? What role and place for social actors in the development of these policies and how should these actors renew their capacity for collective representation? Built around 6 plenary sessions and over 20 workshops, this conference mobilized over 130 international researchers and 320 participants. SSHRC-MCRI Theme(s): n/a Promotional Material Conference Website Poster Deliverables Publication(s) : PUL Series (forthcoming) (2011) J. Charest, G. Murray, G. Trudeau (Eds.)E-ProceedingsPost-Conference Website Media Library |
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| 2004 | |||||
| 18-20 November 2004 • International Conference Union Renewal: Innovations for Union Power in a Globalized Economy HEC Montréal Montreal, Canada Regardless of the workplace, country or continent, unions are facing the same refrain: globalization, flexiblization, deregulation, liberalization, privatization, individualization and so on. Traditional forms of action are being questioned, past gains have to be renegotiated, and it is difficult for workers to make themselves heard. How should unions respond to these new challenges? What kinds of innovation should they explore and what paths of renewal should they favour? As part of its project on Rethinking Institutions for Work and Employment in a Global Era (2003-2007 grant), under the auspices of the Major Collaborative Research Initiatives program of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT - Université de Montréal, Université Laval, HEC Montréal) invited academics and union activists, staff and leaders to an in-depth examination of union renewal. Organized in collaboration with a wide range of union partners in Quebec, Canada and abroad, this international conference brought together over 250 participants. A special invitation was issued to trade unionists to make the most of that opportunity to discuss the challenges of renewal, within a context that fostered brain storming, learning and the sharing of experiences. The program was divided into two main blocs : a Forum on Union Renewal, which focused on union experiences, and a Study Day, which focused on scientific research. SSHRC-MCRI Theme(s): n/a Promotional Material Conference Website Poster Deliverables Publication(s) : Just Labour, 6&7 (2005) L. Haiven, S. LeQueux, C. Lévesque, G. MurrayTransfer, Vol.11, No.4(2005) G. Murray, J. WaddingtonPaths to Union Renewal: Canadian Experiences(2005) P. Kumar, C. Schenk Labor Studies Journal, Vol.31, No.3(2006) C. Lévesque, G. MurrayRelations industrielles / Indusrial Relations, Vol.61, No.4(2006) L. Haiven, C. Lévesque, N. RobyPost-Conference Website |
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| 21-23 June 2004 • International Conference Citizenship at Work? Thinking the Workplace of the Future Université Laval Quebec, Canada Within the framework of its SSHRC-MCRI project Rethinking Institutions for Work and Employment in a Global Era (2003-2007 grant), the Interuniversity Research Centre on Globalization and Work (CRIMT) held an international conference on Citizenship at Work. This conference was held at Université Laval June 21st, 22nd and 23rd 2004. It was organized in collaboration with multiple partners, notably Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC), the Ministère du Développement économique et regional du Québec, the Ministère du Travail du Québec, the International Labour Organization, the Canadian Labour and Business Centre, the Canadian Policy Research Network (CPRN) and the Canadian Studies Association. What prompted this initiative? There is a degree of convergence in thinking, both nationally and internationally, about the need to develop a vision for the workplace of the future. Be it in terms of decent work, dignity at work, job quality and mental health, racial and gender equality, labour market exclusion, work-life balance, life-long learning, opportunities for participation and social dialogue, reconfigured employment relationships or managing knowledge-based organizations, there is a need for researchers, public-policy makers and labour market actors to develop a more pro-active and coherent vision of labour market futures than simple flexiblization in a context of economic globalization. For example, what kinds of flexibility should we be seeking and at what cost? The older contract about citizenship at work assumed certain rights and responsibilities. The parameters of this have changed fundamentally and that is why we are bringing together researchers, public-policy makers, corporate, union and other labour market actors to think about the basis for a new understanding of citizenship at work, one that might lead to a better balance between organizational efficiency and worker equity in the context of globalization. This conference brought together some of the finest international specialists on these issues, as well as actors from the workplace, unions and employers, governmental and non-governmental organisations. Its objective was to favour a dialogue between academic research and practical experience, as well as a debate on the development of institutions better adapted to the challenges of globalization and of the new economy. SSHRC-MCRI Theme(s): n/a Promotional Material Conference Website Poster Deliverables Publication(s) : Relations industrielles / Indusrial Relations, Vol.60, No.4 (2005) M. Coutu, G. Murray (Eds.)PUL Series(2010) M. Coutu, G. Murray (Eds.) |
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| 2003 | |||||
| 30 April - 2 May 2003 • International Conference Equity, Efficiency or Ethics? Corporate Codes of Conduct and the Social Regulation of the Global Firm HEC Montréal Montreal, Canada Drawing on a range of original contributions, this conference sought to set out some of the pathways for thinking about the increasingly important phenomenon of the social regulation of work and employment in global firms. The underlying assumption being that some combination of the intervention of state and non-state actors is required to influence the behaviour of global firms. Hence, the need to look at some combination of national and international political institutions, direct or indirect ("hard" or "soft") legislative framing, the actions of trade unions and civil society groups and, indeed, the direct pressure exercised by consumers preoccupied with the ethical and planetary ramifications of their decisions. Under the auspices of CRIMT's Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council's Major Collaborative Research Initiatives (2003-2007 grant) project on Rethinking Institutions for Work and Employment in a Global Era, this conference was organized in cooperation with the Canadian Workplace Research Network (CWRN). SSHRC-MCRI Theme(s): n/a Promotional Material Conference Program Poster Deliverables Publication(s) : Relations industrielles / Industrial Relations, Vol.59, No.1 (2004) G. Murray, G. Trudeau (Eds.)The Regulation of Work and Employment in Global Firms(2011) G. Murray, G. Trudeau (Eds.) |
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| 15-17 April 2003 • International Conference La légitimité de l'État et du droit. Autour de Max Weber HEC Montréal Montréal, Canada Summary (French only): Ce colloque international visait à contribuer au développement, bien au-delà de la théorie du droit, d'une réflexion interdisciplinaire sur le thème de la légitimité du droit et de l'État. À l'origine du projet, l'idée voulant que la sociologie politique et juridique de Max Weber offre à cette fin un point de départ tout à fait incontournable, vu l'immense impact qu'elle a eu sur les théories subséquentes de la légitimité, chez les théoriciens du droit et du politique sous Weimar par exemple, et plus récemment chez des auteurs comme Habermas et Luhmann. SSHRC-MCRI Theme(s): n/a Promotional Material Conference Program Deliverables Publication(s) : La légitimité de l'État et du droit. Autour de Max Weber (2006) M. Coutu, G. Rocher (Eds.) |
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